dnesday, April 25, 1979
THE CLARION
page seven
Clarion Sports Roundup
Articles On Pages Seven and Eight
The PGA Tour
by Bobby Hayes
Spring brings more than just
sunshine to the south. Its advent
also brings the PGA Tour. On
consecutive April weekends the
professional golfers swing into
our neck of the woods, first for
the Greater Greensboro Open
(GGO), and then on the following
weekend they head for Augusta,
Georgia, where the famous
Masters Tournament is held. I
was privileged enough to obtain
tickets to both and I would like to
share some of my impressions
about them.
Most recently, I drove to
Augusta for the Masters. This
tournament is considered to be
one of the most prestigious
sporting events held in the United
States. Tickets are extremely
tough to obtain; a man from
Greenville, South Carolina told
me he had attended the Masters
for 12 years before having to miss
the tournament one year. By
missing one tourney, he had to
resubmit his name for tickets the
next year and he was put on a
waiting list by the Ticket Com
mittee. Unfortunately, he has
been on this list for the past eight
years, unable to get tickets.
My ticket was for the second
round to be held on a Friday.
Leaving Brevard that morning,
in a torrential rainstorm, my
prospects for seeing any action
did not look good. However, after
driving for about two hours in the
rain, about 50 miles outside of
Augusta the skies cleared, an
swering my prayers.
When I finally reached Augusta
1 could not see any indication that
3 golf tournament was to be
played there. No direction or any
advertisements promoting the
tournament could be found
anywhere, but after asking for
directions a couple of times, I
finally arrived there. Things
f^ally started out with a bang
when a police officer directed me
to park in such a way that I ran
over a bottle,_Wonderful.
At last, I was on the golf course.
The place was immaculately
®pt. There was not even so much
one blade of crabgrass. The
ans seemed to be mostly middle-
^ied and older people; very few
youngsters were visible. The
orowd was very well behaved and
^^emed to be quite
nowledgeable about the game of
80 f■ No marshals were needed to
control this crowd.
As the big-name players
"'alked right beside me, I
couldn't help but to be slightly
3"'ed. Legends of the game such
Jack Nicklaus and Arnold
alnier turned out to be mortal
Poople, They actually spoke to
fellow competitors. The
'Sgest ovation of the day was
Siven to Arnold Palmer as he
walked up the I8th fairway
“ward the green. Fans will
^ ''’ays remember their heroes.
After watching play on the 16th
green for about an hour, suddenly
on the scoreboard this message
was posted: “Tornado Watch”.
Knowing they weren’t talking
about Brevard College, I began to
look at the darkening skies and
wonder how much longer play
would continue. My answer came
in the next minute - cars came to
pick up the players from thei
course to take them back to the
clubhouse while the fans were left
to await their fate amidst the
elements. As the rain began to
fall harder and the lightening
began to crack around me, I
began to question the sanity of a
person who would pay money to
stand out in a storm for over an
hour. After this wait, I sloshed up
the hill toward the paking lot. I
had really had enough.
Although the trip was en
joyable, in retrospect, while the
Masters is very prestigious, I
believe it is too prestigious. The
attitude of the tournament staff
seems to be one of total un
concern for the fans. The staff
seems to feel that the fans should
greatly appreciate the fact that
they got to come in the first place
with no frills attached. Next year
I believe I will just stay here and
put my money into my own
unappreciated golf game.
The week before, I attended the
G.G.O. in Greensboro and had a
much more enjoyable time.
Tickets are sold on an unhmited
basis which makes the G.G.O.
more of a “people’s tour
nament”. Signs can be found
throughout Greensboro directing
visitors to the tournament site,
Parking is also not a problem.
The crowd is much younger and
the atmosphere is much more
relaxed. As I walked around the
course, I noticed the crowd at the
17th hole was quite boisterous.
Apparently golfer i Tim Simpson
also noticed. On his way to
shooting an 81 for the day, Tim
asked the gallery there, “You
people aren’t drinking beer, are
you?” “Yeah!” came the reply.
“Well, I’ll be joining you after
one more holeSimpson added.
Another situation which en
deared me to the GGO occurred
at the 15th hole on Saturday’s
third round. The three leaders
(Jack Renner, Gary Player, and
Jim Thorpe) were all standing at
the tee in a very tense situation
with only three shots separating
them. First to play, Jim Thorpe
hit a tremendous drive. One of
the fans shouted out sar
castically, “I like it, Jim”. Next
to play was the supposedly dour
Gary Player. Player addressed
the ball, then he backed away and
addressed the fan, “It certainly
doesn’t take much to please you,
does it?” After the laughter died
down. Player then hit a drive that
flirted with trouble, but stayed
safely in play. As Jack Renner
tied his ball up, he commented on
Player’s drive: “He’s not strong
enough to hit the ball into
trouble.” It all just goes to show
that at the G.G.O. the game is
still fun and not merely a
business transaction. While
Augusta made me think that golf
had become too aristocratic, the
memories of Greensboro
disprove that theory.
Now for some sport’s shorts.
The conclusion of the Masters
was quite stirring to say the least,
with Fuzzy Zoeller winning a
three-way playoff. Poor Ed
Sneed, Sneed bogeyed the last
three holes to send the tour
nament into a playoff. Maybe he
started taking the green jacket
off the hanger before it was his.
Here are my dependable
predictions for the upcoming
baseball season. In the American
League, the Eastern Division
winner will undoubtedly be the
New York Yankees, while in the
West the Kansas City Royals will
also repeat. In the National
League East, the Pittsburgh
Pirates will gain revenge on the
Phillies to win, and the Los
Angeles Dodgers will win in the
West. Now if any professor asks
you on his final exam to name the
division winners of the 1979
season, you will know the an
swers.
I was appalled at the reaction
of Victor Galindez following
regaining his WBA light-
heavyweight boxing cham
pionship recently. After the bout
was over, Galindez, who broke
Mike Rossman’s (the former
champion) hand, came over
toward Rossman’s corner and
began taunting him. With such a
display of poor sportsmanship, I
hope next year I will have the
pleasure of reporting the demise
of Victor Galindez.
Golfers Improve
By Alan Baker
Coach Lee Bratton’s golfers
have found the going rough on the
links during the recent season.
But the Tornados have steadily
improved, even without the help
of scholarships and much needed
experience, which is required to
have a successful golf squad.
Due to the recent vacancy left
by John Meryerhoff’s departure
as basketball and golf coach,
Bratton was asked to fill in and
has done a respectable job.
The Brevard match record is
now at a disappointing 1-6. The
victory came against A-B Tech
on April 6th, due to a forfeit. But
Bratton is quick to point out that
the Tornado top three soundly
defeated the Atomic top trio, so
the victory was richly deserved.
>
A
Wade Named
All American
Tornado roundballer Benton 656 and is second in
Wade was recently named to the career scoring with 1152 tallies,
junior college All-American j^g named first team
squad. The 6’7” sophomore Q^j-olinas Junior College
averaged 19.1 points and 10.2^]j.Qonference, first team
rebounds per game as he led ^n.Tournament and first
Brevard to a 26-10 record. Wade ^ggjjj f^ggjQ^ y^ji.journament.
is the first Tornado ,cager to be wa(jg jg currently being hotly
named All-American since Tomj-ggpyj^g^j jjy major universities
Barber was selected in 1961. g^d is making the rounds visiting
Benton is the holder of the all’several campuses before making
time career school reboundj^jg decision as to which one to
end.
Photo by Grenier
Chip Smith blasts from bunker ciuring recent round.